If only we knew what they "know..."
Perhaps one of the great ironies of this whole "angry crowd" story is that it results because the GOP was too successful in their "evil muslim" whisper campaign.
It was designed to tarnish Obama's image and motivate a fringe, but instead, it's been taken literally by millions and taken on a life and propagation of its own. They didn't realize the fertile ground of "believers" upon which this message would fall.
So, now, you have people in these crowds who "know the truth" and feel betrayed that their candidate isn't screaming about it. And if McCain isn't going to do anything, the feel it's their duty to force this "truth" out, because if only we knew what they know......
On the other hand, you have the vast majority of the country staring aghast at this spectacle.
Separate from any issues, or character, or whatever, do you think that anyone outside the crazy edge of the GOP wants to identify themselves with that? White suburban independents? Women? Hispanics?
Frankly, in some part, this is the long outgrowth of the GOP "base plus" strategies of the last two elections. They've been indoctrinating these people for almost a decade. Assuming the psychic traumas of the last eight years just intensified their devotion to the fundament, it's not really too much of a surprise that we've come to this.
It was designed to tarnish Obama's image and motivate a fringe, but instead, it's been taken literally by millions and taken on a life and propagation of its own. They didn't realize the fertile ground of "believers" upon which this message would fall.
So, now, you have people in these crowds who "know the truth" and feel betrayed that their candidate isn't screaming about it. And if McCain isn't going to do anything, the feel it's their duty to force this "truth" out, because if only we knew what they know......
On the other hand, you have the vast majority of the country staring aghast at this spectacle.
Separate from any issues, or character, or whatever, do you think that anyone outside the crazy edge of the GOP wants to identify themselves with that? White suburban independents? Women? Hispanics?
Frankly, in some part, this is the long outgrowth of the GOP "base plus" strategies of the last two elections. They've been indoctrinating these people for almost a decade. Assuming the psychic traumas of the last eight years just intensified their devotion to the fundament, it's not really too much of a surprise that we've come to this.
posted by mikevotes at
2:38 PM
4 Comments:
Great post. Eloquent.
It was designed to tarnish Obama's image and motivate a fringe, but instead, it's been taken literally by millions and taken on a life and propagation of its own. They didn't realize the fertile ground of "believers" upon which this message would fall.
Exactly right. The idea was to create doubts in the minds of swing voters. Nobody was really supposed to believe that Obama was a terrorist, a Muslim, or that he hates America. It was all about instilling enough doubt in Obama to make swing voters more receptive to the "safe" McCain.
Instead, nobody bit on the hook except for the base, which would believe nearly anything the leadership told them. These smears were repeated for months, since it was inconceivable that the general public would fail to be swayed by them.
Th end result, as you note, is that the base turned rabid at the prospect of an ostensibly corrupt, America-hating, Marxist, Muslim, terrorist-supporting President. They have no idea that this wasn't for "base consumption", and they've gone off the deep end.
Too many "reliable" sources on the Right have embraced these smears now for the Republicans to say that it was "all in good fun". They can't turn off the faucet of hate, and the further behind McCain gets, the more the base wants that faucet opened up all the way instead of shut off.
Counter-demonstrating at McCain or Palin rallies just got extremely dangerous.
Further, since the base lives in an artificial bubble world, they have no idea how the rest of the country is reacting to their behaviour.
By
Todd Dugdale , at 4:52 PM
Thanks.
It was supposed to be "McCain's black baby" that circulated word of mouth in whispers, not echoed back to the candidate in rallies.
I think you catch the trap well. The worse it gets, the more the crowd wants to hate.
And I think the thing to remember is that the more rabid, the extreme voices we're hearing, REALLY BELIEVE this stuff.
By
mikevotes, at 5:18 PM
This kind of crap wouldn't fly with an well-educated electorate, which is why Republicans have been cutting education spending for years.
By
Lew Scannon, at 10:11 PM
I don't know if it's that deep, but there's always that consistent polling out there showing FoxNews viewers are the worst informed of any of the major media outlets.
By
mikevotes, at 10:14 PM
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